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Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Great Barrier Reef

AUSTRALIAStretching for 1,250 miles (2,012 km) along the coast of
Queensland, Australia,
the Great Barrier Reef is the
world’s largest grouping of coral reefs. At least 2,900 individual reefs, along
with some 300 islets and 600 continental islands, are sprinkled across an area
of ocean larger than Great Britain.

This massive reef is all made of and by tiny, simple
organisms. Coral polyps are tentacle animals with protective limestone
skeletons. Dead corals build up over millions of generations into reefs. Only
the colorful, topmost layer is alive. The 400 coral species of the Great
Barrier Reef underpin an ecosystem that includes at least 1,500 species of
fish, 4,000 species of mollusks, and 240 species of birds.

LIVING COLOR A
rainbow of coral greets a diving marine scientist on the Great Barrier Reef.
Living coral animals make up only the top layer of the reef; beneath them are
millions of years’ worth of skeletal coral remains.

INFINITE VARIETY
The reef is home to the quick and the dead, including shipwrecks, crescent-tailed
bigeyes, humphead warsse, and broccoli coral.